Vault 188: Vault Royal
by LWTSC
Summary: In the year 2076 there was a large mercenary group in the United States. One of the best. Suspecting that nuclear armageddon was close they prepared. Over a century after the war ended their story and the story of Dionysus Hawx Began. Better Summary inside.
1. Prologue 1: The War and The Vault

So, it's been so long since I've wrote a story. I'm completely changing up my style. Stay with me while I get back into it. However, I wanted to do something that was somewhat original if not completely so. This is about an OC and eventually the Courier will be involved but the events of New Vegas take place October 11, 2281.

Located in western Arizona, Vault 188 nicknamed Vault Royal was completed in 2076 just one year before the bombs dropped in the Great War. Funded by every member of an American mercenary group known as the "Royals" who emptied bank accounts and accrued mountains of debt to protect their families. Designed to house the four hundred men of the mercenary battalion and their families totaling around nine hundred people. Complete with living quarters, kitchen, armory, shooting range and all the amenities of a typical Vault-Tech vault. The door hidden within the mountains was additionally concealed with an impossibly expensive experimental cloaking system that instead of making things invisible it merely made them look like whatever it was programmed to, in this case just a cave wall.

On October 13, 2077, whispers of the possibility of actual nuclear launch were spread throughout the intelligence grapevine before reaching ears of the leader of the Royals, Travis "Dionysus" Hawx. Despite the seriousness of the warnings many people who heard them dismissed them. Trusting his instincts, Hawx sent word to his brothers in arms to travel to a set of coordinates in western Arizona, bringing with them their family, equipment and essentials. The coordinates led the men and those that had families to the Black Mountains of Arizona. Turning to look one last time at the Arizona desert and way off cities the families entered the vault as the door sealed behind them never to be opened for the next two hundred and thirteen years.

 **October 23, 2077**

 **6:00am**

 **Location: Vault 188 Communications room.**

"So my instincts and the sources were right? The Bombs are coming?" A tall muscular man with blue eyes asked as he stared at the communications equipment.

"Yeah, look Travis you have been a great friend to me," the speakers crackled. "In less than an hour the west coast will be hit. Tell my sister and my wife that I love them. I have to go they are evacuating the base. I wish I could've gone with everyone but a General going missing would be suspicious. Goodbye my friend."

Lowering his head softly and pressing the talk button Travis spoke softly, "Goodbye my friend, don't worry I will take care of them."

 **October 23, 2077**

 **6:47am**

 **Location West Coast, United States of America**

The bombs fell upon the cities of the west coast sending radiation and fire to scorch the Earth. Mostly ignored by many as it was early in the morning and false senses of security made many think it was just a drill. They should've seen it coming after war…war never changes.

 _Accessing Vault 188 Historic Logs…_

 **May 15, 2079**

 **Vault 188**

Sergeant O'Hare checked out a Colt M1911 A1 from the Master Gunnery Sergeant Donnelly. Records show that it was recorded as being returned but when inventory was taken later that day it was recorded missing. Master Gunnery Sergeant Donnelly then confronted O'Hare and was shot in the chest barely avoiding a fatal wound but still temporarily decommissioning him. O'Hare proceeded to approach and hold hostage Alexis Hawx, wife of Major Travis Hawx current leader of the Royals. Worried and hesitant to act for fear of harming his six-month pregnant wife in any way Travis Hawx negotiated for two hours with O'Hare.

Eventually O'Hare came out of the room he had barricaded himself in; however, in a moment of panic he accidently pulled the trigger and the weapon discharged. Dropping the gun and letting go of the bleeding hostage in shock, he looked toward Major Hawx in horror and raised his hands up. Conflicting stories state that it was an accident or it was done on purpose, unfortunately the truth was never found out. Major Hawx, at seeing his pregnant wife fall to the ground bleeding, drew his sidearm and shot O'Hare dead.

Psychological reports state that O'Hare had lost his wife in childbirth the year before and had appeared to be coping fine. The Sergeant eventually couldn't handle it and in between his psych examinations he began to become unstable. An interview with Major Hawx, shows that he always regretted taking O'Hare's life. He states that he thought his wife was just killed and had lost his unborn child and wife causing him to act without thinking.

 **August 18, 2079**

 **Vault 188**

Months after making a recovering from the gunshot wound that entered her cheek and exited out the other Alexis Hawx gave birth to her son on this day, naming him Roger after her brother

 **March 12, 2080-2140**

 **Vault 188**

Life in Vault 188 is relatively peaceful and uneventful with the exception of various births and marriages that take place. Travis Hawx remained leader for these peaceful years with his wife by his side; they are 96 and 93 respectively. Their son Roger Hawx is married with a son of his own, Roger is 61.

With every generation in the vault the skill of combat and survival are taught mandatory along with education. If so pursued, the few scientists, engineers and doctors in the group can teach science, medicine and engineering at a doctorate level. The life style is militaristic with everyone being set jobs and the only way to gain ground is to excel and be promoted. Everyone has been happy with the societal structure and under Hawx leadership it has been prosperous and peaceful.

 **December 25, 2140**

 **Vault 188**

Travis and Alexis Hawx are discovered, by their son, dead in their bed. They seem to have passed away in their sleep. By seemingly unanimous decision Roger Hawx is to continue leading in his father's place.

 **April 1, 2158**

During a live fire exercise at the shooting range a Gauss Rifle explodes in a young Corporal's hands, the shrapnel killing him and one other person. Investigation revealed faulty Microfusion Cell caused the explosion. All ammo is thoroughly investigated and all defective equipment that cannot be scrapped is disposed of.

 **June 6, 2159**

A holotape is discovered containing information on the vault finances. It is revealed that in order to help pay for the creation of the vault, Travis Hawx and a few other high ranking officers did shady and high-risk assassination deals for extreme amounts of money. Despite the dark nature that was revealed to have paid for the vault they are still hailed as heroes for being one of the main reasons the vault that saved their lives was created.

 **October 2, 2160**

Roger Hawx dies of a heart attack at the age of 81. He is continued by his wife and his son Daniel, who is 39. Refusing to take leadership Daniel instead passes it to the highest ranking officer who happens to be a close friend of their family, Captain McKay.

 **August 5, 2199**

Talk of opening the vault has led to a vote on this day. The Vault shall be opened on January 1, 2240 on the grounds of reconnaissance of the surrounding 20-mile radius from the vault.

 **January 1, 2240**

At 5:30am Vault 188 opened for the first time after being deemed safe to breathe and explore. Eight squads of the best reconnaissance teams comprised of three members each were sent out in every direction to explore the 20-mile surrounding area. The squads were given the order not to engage any hostile forces unless discovered and then if discovered were to eliminate all evidence of their presences. Seven of the eight squads returned with no conflict while the eighth lost a member to a giant scorpion, Pvt. Jenkins was carried by his squad back to base where he was given a proper burial.

Many of the squads reported back with tales of mutated animals and insects and several savage looking tribes. One squad reported back of the nearby military base that looked relatively un-scavenged due to high-tech locks on the doors. Captain-now Major McKay gives the order for three squads of engineers and an escort of four squads comprising of a squad of snipers, heavy weapons specialist and two squads of spec-ops to head to the military base and bring back any supplies and engineering tech possible.

(ROYAL)(ROYAL)(ROYAL)(ROYAL)

So reviews and opinions please. Granted it wasn't much, some actual actions and story will begin taking place in the next Chapter. Prologue part 2. The Next Chapter will be based around the story of the main characters father in order to understand the Vault society and combat as a whole as well as begin the backstory for the establishment in the wastes. And if you look at the times, lets see if you can get some of the hints on whom the conflict could be with.


	2. Prologue 2: Opening and Charles Hawx

Shout out to my Beta's **Farky-Fark and the Munky Bunch** as well as **robinwitch1** and **Falloutguy1986** and **Izlawake**

 **unfortunately this isn't edited yet XD**

(VAULT ROYAL)(VAULT ROYAL)(VAULT ROYAL)

 **January 3, 2240**

 **Logs taken from the helmet cams of Spec-ops Captain Charles Hawx**

Putting back together his modified .45 Colt 1911 with an ivory grip and holstering it before checking over his Marksman Rifle making sure to attach the silencer. Glancing up as he finished his equipment check he looked over the troops he was commanding. They had been trained for missions for years however being in the vault didn't really give actual combat training. To be honest he was slightly worried.

Kilo-squad, supposedly some of the best snipers that weren't spec-ops, have never had to worry about wind resistance and bullet drop except knowing how to do the calculations. He supposed that it was a test for everyone.

Echo-squad, the guys were a bunch of jokesters, granted they knew their heavy weapons very well. Two of the guys wielded mini-guns though they wished for Gatling lasers. Another had a missile launcher while the finale two carried grenade launchers and C4.

Then there were the engineer squads; they were as good at destroying, as they were at building. Carrying the standard issue assault carbine while one man in each squad had a marksmen carbine. Spec-ops squads Alpha and Bravo he had no problems with, as they were the best at pretty much everything, yet like the others they lacked actual combat experience.

"Alright ladies and gentleman you know the mission but incase you forgot," Charles commanded as he stood up. "We are to go 10 klicks to the north-east, located there is our target."

Everyone glanced down at their pip-boys looking at the Nav. Point and the picture of their target. One of the snipers looked back up. "How do we know if there is anything in the base after all these years?"

"Well Corporal, the reconnaissance team reported that the base was locked down on some pretty heavy security. Advanced locks and terminals, which is one of the reasons my squad and Spec-ops Bravo are here."

(VAULT ROYAL)(VAULT ROYAL)(VAULT ROYAL)

The trek through the desert to the base was relatively uneventful except that one of the engineers almost got lit on fire by one of those giant ants. Looking through the scope of his Marksman Rifle he noticed about a dozen military grade protectrons, half a dozen Mr. Gutsy's and a handful of sentry bots. "Bravo team this is Alpha Leader, do you read?"

 _"Roger, Alpha Leader requesting mission status."_ Bravo Leader's voice crackled through Hawx's short-range communicator.

"The rest of the squads will hold position and cover us, snipers will be watching the perimeter of the base while the engineers and heavy squad will watch the base. There are numerous military grade robots of all sorts."

 _"_ _Roger, switching to armor-piercing rounds."_

"Negative, switch to AP rounds but do not engage. I have a feeling the Major will want these robots. Each man is to stealthily shut down the robots and the sweep the base for any hostiles. Circle around the base and take it from the other side while we go in."

 _"_ _Roger."_

Moving down the small hill he motioned for his squad to split up and pick a target. Glancing around for any robots he sprinted as quietly as possible to the nearest building and throwing himself up against it before looking around the corner. Seeing a Sentry Bot with no other robots nearby he quickly made his way behind it and ripped open a panel on its neck with his combat knife and yanked out a couple wires thinking back to his training.

 **Flashback**

 **"** **Now, today you will be learning how to disable any hostile robots in the case that there is any still functioning outside this vault. First of all we have the standard Protectron unit, which is the weakest of the robots. Protectrons have a large panel on the back of the "head." Now typically it is secured with only a small latch, while more secure models have a panel, which is screwed on. However, this panel can still be ripped off if one has a knife of some sort. Now to disabling them, once the panel is out of the way there are a few wires of numerous colors, fortunately. The ones to shut it down are the blue, red and yellow. I can't stress this enough, if all the wires are not pulled at the same exact time you risk damaging the power supply and well…boom.**

 **Next up we have Mister Handies and their military counter part Mister Gutsies. There are two ways to take these units out, one that does more damage than the other but is easier. The first option is that you can shoot the thruster that keeps them afloat however you will still need to get to it and disable it entirely as it can still fire but is easier to dodge. Now, if you can either sneak up on one or be really fast, you're other option is to jump on top of the unit and rip open the panel located there. Now, the civilian model Mister Handy has an off switch under the panel; however, the Mister Gutsies have a multitude of wires that are red, blue or grey. The grey wires are what lead to the power source, so those are the ones you want to find and unplug or yank out.**

 **The deadliest of all the robots and the trickiest to temporarily disarm is the Sentry Bot. If it spots you and you're dead set on not permanently putting it out of commission then you better be fast. Otherwise you'll want to use stealth to take them out. The panel is located on the back of the "neck" and the panel like the others can either be unscrewed or forced off with a knife or I suppose it could be bashed in. One of the other things that make this robot so tricky is the lack of differential coloring on the wires. All the wires are white so you need to locate the wires based off of location and length. The longer wires are out of the question; those go to weapons systems and movement servos. The short wires are the ones you should be looking at however these are the most numerous of wires located in this area. You should look for a short wire that curves to the left and up as well as a short wire that curves to the right and up. It is impertinent that you pull the one going to the right first, if you pull the other wire the robot will immediately self-destruct with you next to it.**

 **Finally, the RoboBrains are relatively easy to disarm but are a lot smarter than the average robot. However, if they grab you they can rib you to shred with their hands and most can wield human weapons while some have integrated laser weapons and a concussive blast wave that will fuck your head up. This being said, they are also easy to outmaneuver on the account of them using treads to move around. With these robots you don't want to remove the power supply, doing so will cause damage to the brain. What you want to go for are these wires, the black and blue wires. Black leads to weapons functions while blue leads to movement. Cut these wires, and the robot is alive but unable to do anything."**

Are there any questions?

 **"** **Sir, what about turrets?" A kid asked.**

"Your best bet is to dodge the gunfire and search for the terminals. That or shoot them down. Alright, you're dismissed."

 **Flashback Ends**

Doing a quick look around he saw the other spec-ops members taking down their targets. Suddenly an explosion rocked the base and he turned around to watch a few protectron husks fly from around a corner.

"What the fuck was that heavies?!" he shouted into his comms.

 _"_ _Well no one was deactivating them and I wanted to test my missile launcher."_

"I gave you a direct order not to fire on the robots unless it was necessary." Sighing as he thought about a temporary punishment. He figured the worse thing he could do to a heavy was taking their weapon. "Someone take his weapon and give him a rifle and do not think that this is your only punishment Mortello."

Walking to the middle of the base and motioning to the snipers and heavies to come down from the hill. "Alright, everyone grab a robot and move them to my location. Alpha and Bravo nice job with disabling the rest of them."

Turning to the leader of Bravo he grimaced when he saw the look on his face and looked down to the dog tags in his hand. "Fuck who did we lose?"

"Corporal Smith… He pulled the wires of a Sentry Bot in the wrong order… Only good thing is the explosion killed him instantly. There isn't enough of him left to bring back."

"Look, Sam it wasn't your fault." Charles said and he clasped the other man's shoulder. "We were only taught theory not practicality and we only hoped that it would be enough. Hold on to his tags and we will make sure he gets a proper send off later. Go take five while I get the rest of this situated, yeah?"

Watching over his friend as he walked away taking a drink from his canteen, Charles turn toward the rest of the squads as they finished bringing the robots over. Four Sentry Bots, nine Protectrons, all six of the Mister Gutsies were sitting temporarily decommissioned together. Checking the time on his Pip-Boy he realized it was a quarter til three in the afternoon and he needed to speed up the clearing of the base in order to make camp for the night. Checking his surroundings in order to figure out what to do next he looked up at the tower.

"Snipers!" he shouted.

"Yes, Sir," they replied scrambling over some of the robots eager to get to do something for once.

"I need you to clear that tower out and get to the top. You will take shifts in pairs of two switching every five hours. Last thing we need is someone sneaking up on us tonight or while we are clearing out the base. Report back to me when it's clear."

Turning towards the three smaller building on the base, most like barracks or some other similar structure. "Engineers, I need each squad to clear those building and report your findings to me."

"Yes, sir."

"David!" A soldier in all black with a black facemask jogged over. "Your father was big into military bases right? As in he studied all the various standard base layouts?"

"Yeah, that's right," the soldier replied as he shifted his rifle.

"He didn't happen to ever mention where the armory is most likely located did he?"

"To be honest I kinda tuned him out most of the time when he brought that up.," David said rubbing his neck nervously before retorting smartly. "I'd assume underground though sir."

"I figured as much smartass," Charles said with a laugh before his comms crackled to life interrupting him.

 _"_ _Sir, it's all-clear and no casualties; however, we encountered a couple of what looks like well zombies so you might wanna come check it out. We also managed to hack a turret and decommission it until it can be reprogrammed."_

"Alright, nice job guys. Take over-watch if there is anything nearby its more or likely going to be attracted to the sound of the explosion earlier. Also drink your water sparingly as we will be staying the night more than likely." Charles stated as he started to head over to the tower to check out the so-called 'zombies'.

Opening the door to the tower he was greeted by the smell of years of dust and stale air. Grabbing a destroyed chair he used it to pry the door open and let some of the air circulate. Taking the bandana from around his neck he wrapped it around his mouth to prevent breathing is most of the dust. Glancing around he noticed some of the computers working but just had blank screens, which was good news. Hearing his named called from upstairs he climbed to the third floor and noticed the decayed looking body that looked clothed in tattered remains of civilian clothes. Holding his Pip-Boy close to the body his Geiger counter started ticking.

"Holy fuck, I guess this is what ungodly amounts of radiation can do to us." Charles muttered as he took out a camera from his bag and took a picture of it for intelligence. "Alright one of you help me grab this body as well as the other one and toss it off the ledge upstairs."

"This is fucking disgusting," the sniper helping him move the body exclaimed.

"Stow it. This poor bastard was once human."

"Well then why are were carrying him to the next floor only to throw him off the tower."

Sighing darkly Charles chuckled, "Well I sure as hell don't wanna carry it down three floors. It's quicker this way and who knows what kind of diseases this thing may have."

"Diseases!" The soldier yelped as he dropped the dead zombie thing.

"Dammit, pick it up or you will be sleeping with the thing."

Finally they managed to get both the bodies to the top of the tower before throwing them off the top into a small ditch that happened to be right below the tower. "Alright guys, any irradiated bugs you shoot immediately. Any of these zombie things, fire a warning shot as for all we know there could be friendly versions of these. I highly doubt it, but we know literally nothing of what is out there. Now, if there are any humans that show up out of nowhere a warning shot and if they shoot back, well put a bullet in their leg. Then immediately notify me and we shall question them.

(VAULT ROYAL)(VAULT ROYAL)(VAULT ROYAL)

 **A Couple Hours Later**

After taking a break the engineers had cleared what appeared to be two barracks and a NCO's Quarters reporting no casualties or any conflict. They were able to hack the Colonel's terminal and get the layout of the base. Their main priority was to decommission the turrets in the base and then secure the armory. Then they were going to secure the generator room and med-bay.

"Alright I want two men taking point with shotguns, I'll be in the center and I want the rest taking up the rear. Clean methodical sweep and we suffer no casualties."

(VAULT ROYAL)(VAULT ROYAL)(VAULT ROYAL)

Charles was just finishing up giving out new orders when his comms burst to life. _"Sir, we have an actual person up here._ "

"On my way don't let them leave."

 _"_ _Yeah, I don't think they will be going anywhere."_

It was said with such a dark chuckle that he imagined they followed his orders down to the letter and then some. Shaking his head he sprinted down the halls and up the stairs before bursting out the door into the fading sunlight. Immediately he had an engineer pointing in the distance to an area with fallen bodies all but one no longer moving. Motioning for the engineer and one other to follow him he jogged over to person not bothering to aim is weapon knowing that the snipers were watching them closely.

 _"_ _There was more seems like a squad but way less organized. We had to take out all but one and this one tried to run but we put a bullet in each leg."_

"Yea, I can see that." He responded finally reaching the survivor and taking out his sidearm putting it against their head. "Who are you and what do you want?"

The survivor spit at Charles feet and pulled out a butter knife swinging it wildly. "Fuck you, I'm not telling you nothing."

"Wrong choice," Charles harshly growled as he shot the man in the hand forcing him to drop the knife. "Now we get to play my way."

Pistol-whipping the man unconscious he motioned for the two engineers to drag the body with him. If he wanted to threaten the group and withhold the information then Charles would have to force it from him.

 **One hour later**

 **5:40PM**

Charles stared at the prisoner as he finally started to stir awake. "Good afternoon Sunshine," he cheerily stated.

From the lack of dilation in the prisoner's pupils, he was probably suffering withdrawal from whatever substance they were on before. His sluggish movement was also another factor as he slowly gained his bearings. Immediately he began struggling once he realized he was tied to a chair.

"Now, you are going to tell me why you fired upon my troops as well as everything about this wasteland around us." Charles demanded as he took his combat knife out of its sheath. "Every time you refuse to answer me I'll cut the top of your fingers off. Then when I am done and if you still refuse to answer, the rest of your fingers will follow."

"I got a better idea, why don't you tell me where the vault you came out of is? So the Scorpions and I can slaughter and rape your people," he maliciously spat only to scream as a knife embedded itself in his hand.

Grinning to himself Charles honestly loved and hated interrogations. Hated them because the unnecessary torture but yet he loved them because they were so fascinating, you bring up one topic and suddenly in a bid to change the topic the subject revealed information you did not even ask for.

"So, these 'Scorpions' are your people and they enjoy raiding, raping and murdering?" Charles asked, pulling up a chair to sit on. "Fascinating, you know why that is fascinating?"

"I don't care, vault trash."

"You should care since those people are exactly the same type of people who deserve to be buried in the ground. Now tell me, about this wasteland."

The raider must have supposed basic information about the Wasteland was not worth losing body parts over as he immediately began detailed information of the flora and fauna of the wastes. Mentioning irradiated scorpions named Radscorpions and the various types of them. Flying bugs that were extremely dangerous and ruthless called Cazadors. Giant flys named Bloatflies, the various types of giant ants, radroaches and giant mantis'.

Then he began spouting about Yao Guai, which were giant irradiated and mutated bears. Big Horners and Brahmin, which were irradiated sheep and cows respectively. Giant rats and Mole Rats as well as coyotes. Continuing on about irradiated humanoids consisting of super mutants, nightkin, ghouls, lakelurks and the heavily mutated centaurs. However, to the shock of Charles it appeared he wasn't done talking animals as he finished up with the various types of geckos as well as the horrifying nightstalkers and deathclaws.

"What about society? Is there any government, structure, law?" Charles asked his voice just barely hiding his disbelief at the terrifying animals out there.

"There are rumors of a group called the New California Republic but we've never seen them. There's no law which I am more than happy to keep that way." The raider happily mentioned until Charles ripped the knife out of his hand urging him to continue. "There is few other groups, apparently the some of the Caravan's get their guns from a group called the Gun Runner's at least that's what we found out from purchase orders."

The raider stopped suddenly and stared at Charles, "Why am I even telling you anything? You're probably going to kill me anyway."

"Hmm, probably; however, do you want to be in constant agonizing pain every second?" Emphasizing his point by cutting a deep jagged line down the raiders arm.

Gritting his teeth the raider continued on, "Man, I don't need this shit in my life. I'm just an honest raider going through my life. Ok, so there is this other group of people who came through the north a while back, we tried to attack them and they slaughtered us with laser rifles and this big ass armor."

"Last question, where is your group located."

"I'm not telling you shit, you think I will just betray my friends like that."

Charles brought his knife down cutting off part of the man's finger. "How many slaves do you have?"

"I'm not telling you aghhh!" He screamed as another part of his fingers were cut off.

"Are they just females or are their child and male slaves there too?"

"Not…telling…" he gasped as another finger was gone. "Fuck you man."

"Where!" Charles shouted drawing his .45 and shooting the raider in both kneecaps. "I'm tired of playing games."

"To the north…for fucks sake… to the north."

"Thank you," Charles curtly replied before shooting him in the head twice.

(VAULT ROYAL)(VAULT ROYAL)(VAULT ROYAL)

What happened later that night was something that no one ever spoke of to the rest of the vault. Alpha and Bravo squad stealthily infiltrated the Scorpion tribe's camp and slaughtered all but slaves. Fortunately, the raiders didn't have children besides the slaves. Each man and women was freed and given one of their previous captors weapons and some supplies before being sent on their way. Afterwards the squads took pretty much whatever wasn't garbage and took it back to the military base making several trips along the way. As the walked away from whatever was left of the camp Charles used a piece of charcoal to write on the wall. "Slavery, punishable by death."

The next day marked the return to the vault bringing with them several but not all of the robots and leaving behind the squad of snipers and heavies to defend the base. Once they returned back to the vault it marked the true change of everything in there. Charles was promoted to a newly created rank, field commander, putting him in charge of everything that had to do in the wasteland.

The sentry bot, mr gutsy and protectron that were taken to the base were worked on extensively trying to make them more effective leading to a more powerful and durable version of the three. This upgrade was later given to the rest of the robots back at the base. Using the mines the found in the armory they laid down a minefield surrounding the base except for the road in. Years were spent gathering scrap metal and fencing and building walls around the base.

Throughout those years every time a raider attack hit the base they kept one alive until they revealed the location of their village. Those raider that raped and enslaved were put down and their slaves freed. They did not attack ruthlessly though, those places that did not attack them they left alone. However, they did keep tabs on some of the raiders and every time a new slave was captured the next day they would suddenly be missing. After five years a new policy was created; those that were rescued were given an option, stay and join them or leave to wander the wastes. Those that stayed were given extensive military training but not allowed a gun for a 6-12 month probationary period. After all, the Royals originally knew war, and war never changes.

(VAULT ROYAL)(VAULT ROYAL)(VAULT ROYAL)

Hey I'm back. I'd like to thank all my betas but give a special thanks to **Farky-Fark and the Munky Bunch** for being someone to bounce ideas off of. This chapter marks the end of the prologue. The next chapter will be from the actual main character Dionysus. and who knows who may make a special appearance. ;) thanks for reading. Please review. I actually do read what you post.


	3. Chapter 1: Legion Troubles and Couriers

So I realized I messed up that year from the last chapter I meant to make it 2240, I will be changing it. So people have been asking what the ranking system in the community is, this will be covered.

Now, let me state. I know that Vault-tec only made 122 public vaults. However this is a privatized vault not part of Vault-tec's sick experiments.

ALSO DID YOU GUYS KNOW THE LONE WANDERER'S FATHER WAS FROM VAULT 21. In the words of Three Dog, I'm not making this shit up.

Warning: Themes of slaving, talk of rape mentioned later in chapter, but not in detail only briefly mentioned.

Chapter three, the beginning of the saga. Let the journey begin.

"Talk"

' _Thoughts'_  
 _"Comms and other language"_

 **Forty Years Later**

 **March 4, 2280**

 **Captain Dionysus Hawx**

Standing in the middle of a room full of computers was a man by the name of Dionysus Hawx, named after his great grandfather's old military codename. With short blond hair and bright blue eyes that were filled with experience for his young age. Standing five foot nine, something he blamed his mother's genetics for, he was still an intimidating presence. Being known to Caesar's Legion as the 'mortem in nebula', which was latin for 'Death in the Shadows,' tended to make people respect you. Caesar has been trying to attack this base since 2250 and for the past four years Dionysus had led all operations on this base. When his father wanted to settled down in the vault with his mother and just be an intelligence officer, Dionysus took over at the age of seventeen.

Looking over the computers that had been salvaged and repaired over the years, the old military base had been restored and upgrade consistently. It now housed about a hundred-fifty men and women along with a couple dozen Brahmin and a dozen Big Horners. The Royals had adapted and thrived in the wasteland and even managed to raid an old Vault-Tec Vault about twenty years ago. Well, it's not really raiding when the vault was filled with skeletons; however, they managed to find a G.E.C.K. and started growing food as well.

Suddenly his comm unit burst into life just as he began to sit down. _"Sir, we have a woman approaching down the road towards the base."_

"Is she armed?"

 _"Affirmative, appears to be armed to a moderate degree and she has a dog with her."_

"Alright, have the snipers watch them and have Corporals Ramirez and O'Mally meet me at the gate."

 _"Roger."_

Sighing, he grabbed his father's pistol off the table before holstering it and walking outside. _'Least it's not another raid courtesy of Caesar, though it worries me the raids have started lessening. Perhaps the NCR was giving Caesar trouble and he was leaving us alone. Works for us, he knows we will not recklessly attack him and only defend and occasionally counter-attack. We don't have the manpower for an all out assault on Flagstaff, not to mention the over twenty-four hour trip there.'_

Standing next to Ramirez and O'Mally, he watched as the stranger walked closer until when she was about thirty feet away he shouted over. "State your business here stranger!"

Slowly she raised her hands halfway up, "Please, I don't mean you any harm." Gesturing to her dog she continued. "We do not have any water left. Night is falling and I heard you were neutral to all but Caesar's Legion and raiders."

Drawing his gun, he approached while also knowing the snipers were watching her. "Forgive our cautiousness but with Caesar controlling almost everything west and north of us we are going to have to ask you to surrender any and all weapons on you if you wish to stay the night."

"Yes of course, whatever you wish. Like I said we do not want to be dehydrated and alone in the darkness of Caesar's territory. Especially considering their views on women," She stated with disgust at the end.

As she walked over, Dionysus held out his hands and watched as she took her sniper off her back and took the pistol out of its holster before handing those over along with her marksman rifle.

"Don't worry, we will return them to you when you leave and who knows, sweet talk the right person and they might even fix and clean them for you," he winked.

Patting his cheek, "Hun, you're cute but you can't handle me." With that she walked by her dog following loyally.

Exclaiming to Ramirez and O'Mally, "Oh, I like her."

Only for O'Mally to grin and Ramirez to snort, "Please, you say that about every woman who doesn't show interest in you. Remember that Lone Wanderer chick last year that was on her way to New Vegas' Vault 21 to apparently retrieve a photo of her parents from the vault and learn some more about them… or something along those lines. It's the same with your thing for older women too. She was older than you and I bet that stranger is too."

"Ramirez, shut up or I'm going to make you clean the weapons in the armory."

"I hate you," Ramirez growled.

"No, you don't," he replied and slowly walked to his personal bunk one of the perks of being the commanding officer.

After depositing her weapons in a locker he grinned and headed out to show her around. After all, one had to be a dutiful Captain.

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Sitting down next to the stranger he began questioning her. "So, what is your name? I can't just keep calling you the stranger in my head."

"Well I'm a courier but I lost my job after I failed a contract," shaking her head and continuing. "Not really my fault though, dying over a bottle of Nuka-Cola Quantum isn't a priority so I dropped the package and ran when I got ambushed by over half a dozen raiders. So now I'm on my way to the New Vegas to try and get a job for the Mojave Express."

"Dangerous job I've heard," Dionysus said as he gave her a once over. "You look like you can handle it though. So that's it?"

Taking a drink of purified water, she stared confusedly at him, "That's it?"

"Well yea, no questions about us? It's strange, typically people wonder who the hell we are. Is our reputation beginning to precede us outside of Arizona or what?"

"Nope," she grinned and shoved him gently before straightening her face. "Actually, there are rumors that someone is giving Caesar's Legion hell in Arizona but no one outside of Arizona seems to know who. Caravans that risk Arizona don't tell anyone shit about you guys even though I know they stop here. I take it you ask for secrecy in exchange for a place to stay and trade safely while they recover?"

It was his turn to grin as he wagged a finger in front of her. "Trade secret my dear. However there are some things I can share. You're right in that we have been making trouble for Caesar but only because he won't leave us alone. You are also right about us wanting secrecy. See the NCR that we have heard about is different from what our scouts have showed us."

His tone became slightly more hostile. "People claim the NCR is the salvation for the west coast when in actuality they are pushing farther than they need to. Instead of peacefully solving problems, we have seen them murder innocent men, women and children all for a piece of land, ever heard of the Bitter Springs Massacre because we have. I'm sure the common folks back in California do not realize it. However, the military force of the NCR seems to take their military might as an excuse for control. The Brotherhood of Steel people that were at some electrical station, the NCR fired the first shots just because they wanted to control a source of power."

He stopped as she put a hand on his shoulder and watched her carefully before continuing. "The Royals history has seen war longer than anyone here except the Brotherhood of Steel from what we hear. Pre-war fighting and post-war fighting our history has seen war and we have learned from it. Something, it seems the rest of the world forgets. Fighting over resources is exactly what made bombs drop."

"Alexis," she said sensing he needed a distraction and seeing just what kind of person he was. "My name is Alexis."

As if he had a sudden shift in personality he started smiling at her and mock bowed. "Dionysus at your service but you may call me Dion."

 _"Sir, we have one of Caesar's messengers here. Won't speak to anyone but you."_

"Ah fuck, hate to go but Caesar's back to his shenanigans I mean bullshit." Dionysus regretfully stated as he turn to walk back to the gates.

"Let me come with you."

"I'll have to decline, as it more than likely is some trap. Stay here where it is safe."

"I'm not some useless person," Alexis exclaimed throwing her hands up and stomping off.

Grinning to himself as he watched her walk off, he turned back to the gate and slowly walked over to make the messenger wait as long as possible. He loved pissing off the Legion, slaving bastards.

As he approached the messenger turned and shouted at him. "You, plebian! Caesar has had enough of your insolence, you are to surrender and be absorbed by the Legion or die while the rest become slaves."

Upon hearing Caesar's message Dionysus burst into laughter as he doubled over. "Ha ha, he… he thinks… oh this is priceless. Tell you what skirt-boy."

"How dare y-" The messenger fumed only to be interrupted by a punch in the face.

"Do not interrupt me again, do not take me for some commoner, messenger." Dionysus growled taking out a pen and paper and speaking aloud as he wrote. _"Dear Caesar. Kindly fuck off. I know you are desperate with the NCR but we bow knees to no man, woman or skirt wearing man._ Now, you will give this to Caesar or your superior to give to Caesar."

It seemed the message was the last straw of blatant disrespect for Caesar as the messenger drew a hidden knife and swung at him only for Dion to grab his wrist and twist it to the side bringing his elbow down on the man's arm breaking it.

"Now that wasn't very nice, here let me help you hold the message as it will be very hard with a broken arm."

Taking the knife he grabbed the note and stabbed it into the man's chest before throwing him out of the gate. Standing there he watched as he slowly got up and started walking back to where Dion could only suspect an escort force of some kind was. Turning to one of the snipers in the tower, "Watch him and when he reaches the rest of his group put a bullet in his head. I don't take death threats kindly."

Sighing he started walking to one of the civilian buildings on the base where the bar, diner and traders stayed. He didn't like having to be so brutal but kindness to Caesar's Legion in any form would be seen as weakness. Plus they were slavers and that was not tolerated one bit.

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Sitting down at the bar he ordered a shot of whiskey only to be denied by the bartender. "Captain Dionysus, we both know you are on duty."

"Hector, either let me pay for this shot or I will just go to my quarters and use my own stash."

"Fine," Hector sighed as he set a shot glass down and filled it with whiskey before holding out his hands for the caps.

"It's on me," a voice interrupted as Alexis sat down beside him.

"Oh hey there beautiful, miss me?"

"You wish, just continuing our conversation." She retorted.

"Ah yes, so a courier on her way to the Mojave with her pet husky. Anything else I should know?"

Grinning widely as he downed a shot of her own. "Yeah, I'm a better shot than you."

"Oh, dream on sweetheart." He replied with offense.

"Then lets make this a bet. One thousand caps says I can shoot better than you."

"I got one better, one hundred caps and a date."

"Well considering I won't lose you're on," she accepted.

After downing his shot they made their way to his quarters to pick up their weapons and then headed to the roof of the base with some bottles.

"Ok this is how it is going to work. Someone throws the bottle and whoever can wait the longest to fire and hit their target before it touches the ground wins."

"Sounds good to me," Alexis said as she loaded her Marksman Rifle.

"One… two… three," Dion shouted as he threw the bottle off the roof.

Alexis wait until it was nine feet of the ground and about sixty feet away before shooting and destroying the bottle. "Ha beat that."

"Will do sweetheart," he replied confidently. "On your mark."

"One… two… three."

Aiming down the scope of his Markman Rifle he waited until it was a foot off the ground and about seventy feet away before pulling the trigger and eliminating the bottle. "Ha, I win."

"That's not fair, your gun is modded."

"You never said no modded guns and its not like it locks on to the bottle."

"Fine, you can have your date."

"Meet me by the gate tonight at eight."

"Alright."

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He stood by the gate with a duffel bag and their rifles and waited bouncing on his heels for Alexis. As soon as she appeared his mouth opened in awe, she was in a nice looking dress with combat boots. Though he figured, who the hell wants to wear heels in the desert. However, she looked absolutely stunning as she stopped next to him and sighed.

"I'm over dressed aren't I?"

"A bit."

"I thought you would take me to as nice a dinner as you can get out here."

"Yeah, I thought about it but I figured you were the type of girl who prefers her guns, so I figured we'd go out to a hill customize and repair your rifle and stargaze or something," he explained rubbing his neck nervously. Something about this woman made him nervous to disappoint which was surprising as no woman ever made him nervous.

"Well," she said excited to customize her gun. "What the hell are we waiting for?"

"Don't you want to change?"

"No time, customize gun now!"

"Alright, follow me." He replied as he started walking to a hill just off base.

As they reached the top of the hill they sat down and unzipped the duffel bag and started pulling out parts. Minutes turned into hours as they talked and modified her rifle, eventually they finished and Alexis shouted triumphantly with a huge grin on her face. She had decided on more magazine capacity, silencer, a more powerful scope as well as a fire rate modification allowing her to shoot single shots or three-round bursts. Lastly, she decided on giving it a blue and black camouflage pattern.

Turning to thank Dionysus she came face-to-face with his only a couple inches away. As they slowly leaned in to kiss they were interrupted by the sound of gunfire.

Activating his comm unit he shouted, "What the fuck is going on, report," Only to receive static. "Aw shit, come on, you might get to test your gun out sooner than you thought."

Grabbing his rifle he stood up and looked over the ridge at the base to see it being attacked from the north _. 'Those Legion idiots are sacrificing troops to the minefield to clear the way. Don't know if they are stupid or brilliant.'_ Sprinting down the hill with Alexis close behind him they circled around the base to come up on the right side of the Legion.

"You don't have armor lay here and take shots at them I'll be back." Dion ordered her.

"Where are you going?"

"Don't worry, I will be fine." He reassured her meanwhile he was thinking the opposite _. 'I really hope this works, we haven't field tested it yet, the test was supposed to be done tomorrow.'_

Hitting a button on his Pipboy he suddenly went invisible, granted it wasn't true invisibility; it was more like blending in to the shadows in an almost frightening way. Making his way through the darkness of the desert while the booming shots of snipers and the echoes of assault rifle fire sounded through the air mixed with the whine of lasers and plasma from the sentry bots and Mr. Gutsies.

Finally he found what he was looking for when he spotted the two centurions leading the Legion forces. Sneaking over to one of them he reached up and it looked as if the shadows themselves came alive to slit the man's throat. Unfortunately, one of the lower dogs of the Legion saw him die and started screaming.

"Mortem in Nebula, he's here, the very shadows came alive and killed him." He screamed pointing to the Centurion bleeding to death.

Grinning to himself that they had no idea where he was and how that very idea scared them he made his way over to the other Centurion and stabbed the man in the heart letting his body drop to the ground. Slowly he made his way away from the battlefield only for his camouflage to fail just as he was escaping. A Legionary spotted him and suddenly he was sprinting through a hail of gunfire, leaping over the ditch where Alexis was he caught a bullet in the leg as half of the legion force advanced on their position.

"Fuck, I'm so sick of these slaving bastards!" Dionysus yelled as he took his rifle from Alexis and started firing on the Legion fighting through his pain.

"Ya me too," she yelled back over the cacophony of gunfire.

After what seem like an hour of fighting it was over and the two of them stood up with Alexis lending a little support despite Dionysus insisting he could do it himself.

 _"Captain, where are you?"_ A voice came over the comms.

'Of course now it works,' he thought.

"Report Lieutenant Jameson, why are the comms just now working?"

 _"Sir, they hit our communications relay with an EMP grenade fried the wires, some how one of them snuck into the base."_

"Son of a… ok, get the techs to look over anything. I want Alpha and Bravo teams to do a thorough equipment search of the base make sure everything is accounted for. I want a casualty report in an hour. I also want every person on the base in the middle of it by the time I get back. We don't need anyone infiltrating any suspected Legion supporter is to be interrogated if they resist execute them."

When they got back to base it was revealed that one of the ex-raiders that was rehabilitated into a member of the society was paid off. Unfortunately, in order to make a point he was publicly executed.

"We opened our doors to you, give you a better life, be nothing but nice to you. We have even saved half of you from being continued slaves, we rescued you and you voluntarily joined our society. We forced nothing! Betraying our loyalty to the Legion is a capital offense, you all know. You think I want to execute people; I would love nothing more than everyone to be happy and friendly. I do not like being the disciplinary bad guy, but there are rules for a reason."

"Why did you do it John, we took your family in you have your own house unlike some others who have to sleep in barracks."

"They are not my family, my daughter," the man, John said disgustedly. "Is a mistake. I only said they were my family to infiltrate you, I threatened my 'wife' to keep quiet. I enjoyed what I did to her every ni-" his rant was cut short and Dionysus shot him in the head.

A disgusted and horrified look on his face when he realized how he was tricked into letting a monster into his society; looking over at the monsters 'wife' and 'daughter' and seeing the expressions on their face he slowly lost it.

Deep sadness washed over his face as he addressed the crowd, "This community means more to me than anyone would think, the Hawx have cared for the Royals since their beginning. To know that such atrocities were happening under my nose horrifies me to no end. If anyone else knows of any similar situations speak now and you will be protected."

When no one spoke up he sighed heavily, "You are dismissed, someone throw this trash to the wildlife."

He approached the ex-wife Cassandra and daughter Sarah, "I am so sorry that I didn't see this happening. I can never forgive my self for what he did to you. I hope you will continue to stay with us, we will prote-" Suddenly he found himself being hugged by Cassandra.

"Thank you so much, I wanted to say something but he threatened to kill Sarah." She cried I couldn't speak up or else.

"It's ok," Dionysus said rubbing her back softly. "If you need someone to talk to Corporal Ramirez can help you."

"Thank you so much for what you've done. Come on Sarah let's go home."

Turning around Dion suddenly had his arms full of another woman. "Alexis."

"It's not your fault you know. Don't blame yourself, you had no idea."

"No I didn't, but I'm sure as hell not letting anything like this happen again. I'm sorry our date was ruined and you had to witness that side of me."

"It's ok, I kinda still had fun fighting the Legion and that side of you doesn't scare me. Come on let's go to your place."

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The next morning Alexis was packed up with supplies and ready to go with her dog, waiting at the gate for Dionysus so she could say goodbye.

"Hey Alexis."

"I was waiting for you Dion," She grinned adjusting her bag. "By the way you can call me Lex."

"Yea sorry Lex, got caught up looking over reports from last night, we lost a couple good men." He sadly replied. "Guess this is goodbye for now."

"Guess so," she smiled leaning up to kiss him before patting his chest. "See you around and if you're ever in the Mojave come find me."

"Will do," he said as he watched her and her companion walk northeast up to New Vegas.

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 **Sorry for the wait. New job recently and family came down to visit for a week so I haven't really had time. I'd like to thank all my betas and specifically Farky-Fark and the Munky Bunch as she is always helping me when I get stuck.**


End file.
